“According to a translated page from the Chinese site Techweb, each robot costs between $20,000 to $25,000, which is over three times the average salary of one worker. However, amid international pressure, Foxconn continues to increase worker salaries with a 25 percent bump occurring earlier this year.”

:: programable robots are now cheaper than human beings ::

and within a few short years will be just as capable in handling the intricate tasks of electrical construction.

so my question i guess is – what then?

what then for china and its huge swathes of newly employed and then subsequently unemployed workers?

what then for the GM and the US auto industry already struggling to maintain its jobs and compete against the cheap labour in the east?

will manufactuing return to europe and other ‘western’ countries it off shored decades ago? – of the costs of electrical goods made in china, almost ⅓ is now transport.

manufacturing might just end up coming back – but the jobs definitely arn’t.

i’m think im going to write a much longer post on global justice and supply chain oppression at some point. and what i think it means for the worker’s struggle vs neoliberalism’s mantra of jobs.jobs.jobs with regard to the full automation of manufacturing.

but for now, what could these future jobs.jobs.jobs be? my best guess, is either like george jetsons:

2 thoughts on “006 : programmable robots are now cheaper than human beings – those jobs at the factory aren’t coming back”

Interesting thoughts. The developments are certainly going to be tough for individuals on short term, but we could ask ourselves if it may not be for the better on long term that we automize this kind of work as it on general does not satisfy people.